Rove, Still Under Subpoena, Remains Unlikely to Testify

By DAVID JOHNSTON

Published: August 14, 2007

Karl Rove will depart the White House still under subpoena to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but his resignation will almost certainly not make his appearance more likely.

Mr. Rove had been summoned to appear before the Senate panel on Aug. 2 to testify about last year's dismissals of federal prosecutors and efforts by the Justice Department to favor Bush loyalists for nonpartisan legal jobs.

Two junior former White House officials, Sara M. Taylor, a former political director, and J. Scott Jennings, a former deputy political director, have testified before the Senate panel. But the White House refused to make Mr. Rove available, just as it has refused to allow testimony by others, including Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, who was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee but did not appear before it.

In these cases, Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel, has invoked executive privilege, citing the need for confidentiality in White House deliberations.

A White House spokesman said Monday that the privilege claim would not be affected by Mr. Rove's resignation. The spokesman, Tony Fratto, said, ''The privilege assertions remain intact.''

Legal experts said that while the executive privilege is a murky legal area, Mr. Rove had a valid claim that it remained in effect after he left the White House.

''It would be amazing if the White House considered executive privilege to be waived by his departure,'' said Cass R. Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate committee, suggested Monday that Mr. Rove was resigning under Congressional pressure.

''The list of senior White House and Justice Department officials who have resigned during the course of these Congressional investigations continues to grow,'' Mr. Leahy said, ''and today, Mr. Rove added his name to that list.''

Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the investigations had raised many unanswered questions.

''We will continue to seek answers to these questions and expect full cooperation of Mr. Rove and other officials regardless of whether they are employed by the White House,'' Mr. Conyers said.

The White House has said Mr. Rove did not instigate the dismissals of the United States attorneys and had little role in the matter. But evidence of his involvement has surfaced in e-mail and other communications released by the Justice Department.

At one point, department officials said in e-mail messages that Mr. Rove wanted to oust a sitting prosecutor in Arkansas to make room for J. Timothy Griffin, a former Rove aide. Mr. Rove was also among those at the White House who pushed for more vigorous enforcement of voter fraud cases.